News from  the "Northern Ireland mod"

[Jimpy 0]

It has been some while since our last news update but the Northern

Ireland mod (NI mod) team has been hard at work in the meantime and

the mod is still firmly on track to deliver a unique Operation Flashpoint

(OFP) gaming experience. We would like to introduce you to some of the

recent developments in the progress of the NI mod:

A new website.

Designed and produced by our members Smiley and Jimboob.

This will expand to include information about the progress our work as

well as background information on the conflict that the NI mod campaigns

represent.

New team members.

UNN and Paddy have recently joined the mod team and are already

producing some interesting and innovative work in the fields of scripting

and mission design.

Missions and campaigns.

Much effort and thought has been devoted to research and design work

on a set of interesting and unusual missions and campaigns. The NI mod

campaign missions are intended to immerse the player in the Northern

Ireland troubles by allowing them to take on the persona of various

members of the British crown forces and of Republican paramilitary

volunteers. Much effort is being devoted to historical research to ensure

that the incidents, environments and even the attitudes expressed in the

missions are authentic to the place and period. The accent with all of the

campaign missions is very much on realism and authenticity, all of which

will put very different, unusual and interesting new demands on players.

Improved AI and behaviours

Design and implementation of several interesting new technologies that

will increase the realism of the campaign missions. These include

enhancements in the behaviours of objects as well as interesting

improvements to the game AI. Our member UNN has been working on a

system that will enable buildings and other objects to exhibit more

realistic effects when damaged.

At the same time Paddy has scripted improved AI routines that make AI

soldiers behave in a more realistic manner when on "urban" patrols. As

well as having the men move in a more authentic manner through the

streets, the new routines have them react more intelligently when in

contact with an enemy; moving into cover positions appropriately,

covering and supporting each other and maintaining an all round lookout.

It is intended that the new "Urban AI" scripts will also be applicable

outside the NI mod environment.

New Addons

In parallel with all this, work continues on researching and building

a comprehensive set of units and island environments to support the mod

campaigns. Several islands are under development all carefully crafted to

portray typical Northern Ireland landscapes and features. These include

both townscape and rural environments.

Troops

The new units represent a wide cross-section of the troops and vehicles

that took part in the conflict. The emphasis with all of these is always on

authenticity and attention to detail. Nothing is accepted for inclusion in the

mod unless backed up by personal experience or verifiable from reliable

sources.

The British Security forces are represented by British regular army and

reservist units and by constables of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The

British troops include members of all the essential corps and services that

were deployed to Northern Ireland during "the troubles". As well as

infantrymen, the mod units include; drivers, sappers, armoured corps

troopers, SAS troopers, bomb disposal officers and military policemen.

The troops are authentically dressed, equipped and armed both for

deployments in urban situations as well as operations in rural areas.

The paramilitary forces of both "sides" in the conflict are represented

by a set of units dressed appropriately based on evidence from authentic

sources. The paramilitaries are equipped with a wide variety of weaponry,

reflecting the multifarious nature of their sources of arms supply.

Vehicles

The troop units are supported by a set of high quality vehicle addons

made by SniperUK. These represent all of the most common types of

military and police vehicles that were seen (and in some cases still are

seen) on the streets and roads of Northern Ireland.

Civilian transport (all meticulously correct for the period) is also included

both for use by the civilians that play an important part in many of the NI

mod campaign missions and by the security and paramilitary forces

on "clandestine" operations.

Model "work in progress" images

We present here several images that showcase the standard of work that

is being done by the NI mod team's model makers. Please understand

that these represent only a fraction of the content of the addon set, and

that all of the pieces shown are still under construction.

SniperUK's British army "Alvis Saracen APC". The model is very

highly detailed and skilfully realised and very accurately represents the

form and features of this vehicle. SniperUK's military vehicle addon set

also includes several variants of the Land Rover general purpose

light truck as well as more heavy transport vehicles and armoured cars.

A montage of images of some of Whisky's (aka Jimpy's) British soldier units. The

British troops in the mod addon set date from the period of the 1970s and

early 1980s and the several new pieces of equipment that were created

specifically for use by the army in NI are all included. Many of the troop

types and equipments are unique to the NI conflict situation and thus also

unique in the form of OFP models.

British army anti-riot equipment by Whisky. The inventory includes

rubber bullet firing guns and tear gas (CS gas) grenade

launchers. New behaviours and anims allow the soldiers to use the

anti-riot gear correctly and to react to riot situations

A small selection of Whisky's new weapon models. These include British

army issue weapons as well as weapons from various origins in the

arsenals of the paramilitary groups.

Some "Northern Ireland [mod] Tourist Board" pictures of Smiley's "rural

Northern Ireland" islands.

We hope that this has proved of interest and has made it clear that

the "NI mod for OFP" is still going strong and is making good progress. If

this conflict interests you and you have some provable talent in any of the

variety of skills needed in mod production (particularly in model making,

texturing and mission making) then we would be pleased to hear from

you and to perhaps welcome you into the mod team. Contact

our mod team leader Smiley at <nickgregnick@yahoo.co.uk> if you need

further information.

Our new website is currently off-line for construction but you are very welcome

to participate in the NI mod discussion forum at http://www.nimod.net/forum

Please feel free to look in sometime. Visitors' comments, suggestions and

questions are always kindly regarded.

-- The NI mod team

[Rikki Tikki Tavi 0]

Very nice, that island in particular is beautiful. I'm looking forward to this.  

[DBR_ONIX 0]

Just..amazing

I really like.. damnit.. all of it

The island looks very impressive, as does the texturing of the brittish soldier with the hood, if you keep it looking that good ingame, I.. might use that evil dancing bannana smilie

Really looking forward to this mod now, wish I could help but I'm too busy to (Read a few books based in NI, or bits of it atleast, and they were interesting)

Just a thought, I think the most (well, not the most, since it's down to the mission designers) important thing in this is the enemy AI. You'll need to script it quite heavily, since you dont want your bomber while casualy walking away from planting a bomb to start shooting a bunch of soldiers who are minding their own buissness

But if you can do that well enough, the mod will be.. *needs new word*

- Ben

[Daniel 0]

Hey Ben,

That island soes indeed look flipping amazing!

[smiley nick 51]

Great work on the L1A1 whisky, looks very detailed, along with the troops.

Smiley

[Mr_Tea 0]

Very interesting news, nice pics and many info about your mod.

Thanks, keep it up. This is a highly awaited mod.

[CanadianTerror 0]

Any new IRA pics?

[somebloke 0]

Very well presented. Looks great, sounds great.

[smiley nick 51]

Any new IRA pics?

Thank you all for your interest. Any feedback is welcome.

The IRA are still under development, they are being created by vixer, but they are still WIP, and we have nothing to really show at the moment that indicates a change from the last versions. But when we have something to show, be assured we shall let you all know

The Island is not reflecting its final quality at the moment, i am in the process of making new ground textures, and the development of custom objects is also in process, at the moment as you can see i am using just "BIS" objects as standard, as we are still in the process of making custom objects for the two islands.

Please feel free to ask anymore questions, myself or the team will be happy to answer

Smiley

[DBR_ONIX 0]

Kinda continuing from what I said (in some form of remotely linked way, but linked none the less.. ), what sort of campain/missions/mp missions will come with the mod?

Once again, great work

- Ben

[Jimpy 0]

Well, assuming that you read the "missions and campaigns"

paragraph in my original post, we are planning several

campaigns for the mod. We are determined that the NI mod

will not merely consist of a set of new addon units.

Plans are currently for single player campaigns only,

multiplayer campaigns will follow if there is sufficient interest

shown in the NI mod by the OFP player community.

Plans for SP missions are at the moment as follows:

A campaign set in the early to mid 1970s where the player

takes on the persona of a British soldier doing a 4 month tour

of duty in NI. After several training missions in which we hope

to "train" the player to act in a historically authentic manner

once out on the NI mod "streets", the soldier/player's duties

will take place both in urban areas (in the NI mod's "'Derry"

and "Belfast") and in rural areas where the operations were

somewhat different from urban patrolling.

The player will experience events including urban riots,

IRA "sniper" shoots, urban patrols by vehicle and on

foot, "stake-outs", OPs, arrests, rural patrols, manning vehicle

check points, bomb incidents and much more. We want to

give a good cross section of the sorts of "activities" a typical

soldier might find himself involved in.

Another campaign will let a player be a member of the Special

Air Service regiment in Northern Ireland. We want to try to

illustrate the much more "robust" approach that the SAS had,

or were allowed, in conducting the counter-insurgency war in

NI. Missions in this campaign will include "covert" as well

as "overt" operations, many carried out in collaboration with

RUC special unit officers.

Another campaign will let the player take on the persona of a

volunteer to one of the Provisional IRA battalions in the NI

mod's interpretation of South Armagh. Activities will include

setting up and executing shooting, hand-grenade, culvert

bomb and RPG attacks on security forces personnel and

installations as well as on feuding members of other

paramilitary organisations.

The IRA in the mod will use a wide variety of weapons, many

new to OFP including home-made improvised submachine

guns, pipe bombs, grenade launchers and mortars. Items like

IEDs (i.e. home made bombs) and truck based mortars will

also be featured.

In all of the missions much programming and scripting is being

done to try to ensure authenticity. The NI missions will be for

hard-core military sim and British army buffs as well as those

with an interest in this particular war. We will not be shying

away from "controversial" topics and care nothing for political

correctness. We will post a warning to this effect with our

download links. We are determined that an authentic Northern

Ireland troubles atmosphere will be properly represented. The

missions will therefore not be conventional OFP "run and gun"

exercises by any means but will challenge the player in other

and more interesting ways.

[GKeeno 0]

this is sounding like a great mod cant wait to get to drive a tank around where i live

[Imshi-Yallah 0]

Looks like it could go interesting places and break a few more OFP barriers. I'm intrigued.

[belgerot 33]

I am very impressed, with everything just about. The soldier models, the weapons, even the island is looking rather nice Good job so far, cannot wait to see more progress from this mod.

[ade_mcc 0]

Sounds and looks great. I especially like the hedgerow effect. Are these passable on foot or do I need to find the style? (absolutely no idea if this is how to spell style).

[NeMeSiS 11]

hey, that looks amazing!

[DBR_ONIX 0]

Sounds equaly amazing

Really looking forward to this mod now

Good luck with it

- Ben

[Soldier91 0]

Looks amazing! Keep up the good work!

Soldier out.

[Jimpy 0]

Sounds and looks great.  I especially like the hedgerow effect.  Are these passable on foot or do I need to find the style? (absolutely no idea if this is how to spell style).

The hedgerows will be passable in places and impermeable in

others. We are also experimenting with technology to get the

AI to climb over certain obstacles. In any case, there will be

plenty of gaps, gates and styles. The idea is that the hedges

are to provide concealment and hinder (but not prevent) free

movement.

[Sch1sm 0]

I had signed up to the old NI Modification Forums but had never really paid any attention to the project as i assumed it had been sidelined sadly, i'm now preparing to eat my own beret with salt and pepper as the work on Page 1 is absolutely stunning, i'm definately going to be putting this modification on my "to track list".

[CanadianTerror 0]

Are the IRA getting a weapon pack of their own as well?

I dont want to see the Brits with the good stuff and the IRA with um....JAM or sumthin of that nature.

Brit weapon models look awesome btw.

[Jimpy 0]

The NI mod IRA are having a large arsenal of "all new" custom model weapons

built for them. Weapons from the early 1970s as well as more advanced ones

from the end of that decade are included (the NI mod and its units run in time

from 1969 up until about 1985 - this time bracket chosen basically to make the

number of security force unit types manageable for our small development team).

These run the gamut from Martini-Henry carbines to AR-18 Armalite rifles

with many of the improvised (home-made) weapons that the IRA created also

included.

The weapons we have chosen to represent are just typical examples (although we

are making sure that there is documented evidence of such weapons being used

by the IRA). Our researches have revealed that a staggering variety of weapons

were used, or at least available to, IRA volunteers at various times. We provide a

good cross section of the types of weapons that were used, but obviously cannot

include everything that was in the arsenals of the paramilitary groups. We intend to

publish a list of those weapons that we have evidence for as a hint to players who

want to use weapons that we don't provide but who still want authenticity. Rest

assured that the NI mod IRA volunteers (and other paramilitaries) will have a rich

and authentic set of weapons to choose from.

[c_jay_ie 0]

All looks good.

This coupled with the Irish Defence Forces pack (look it up) should make OFP miles more fun!

[Jimpy 0]

All looks good.

This coupled with the Irish Defence Forces pack (look it up) should make OFP miles more fun!

The Irish Defence Forces pack, I believe, contains only modern

troops and equipment. The NI mod will include an Irish Army

squad from the early 1980s.

[smiley nick 51]

This is more of a recruitment news post than anything else.

The NIMOD progress over the last months has been slow and steady. But like most other mods we would like to speed things up a little. If you are reading this, and have talent in any of the ofp trades please feel free to contact me or visit our forums. We are mostly looking in the areas of...

1.) Modelers (o2 or 3dmax)

To model vehicles, buildings, and misc objects

2.) Texture artists

To texture any weapons, buildings and misc objects

3.) Mission/campaign makers

To follow a set plan of a campaign and bring it to life

You will have a great team to work with, and we have some very interesting concepts that we wont release fully yet, but its definitely worth getting excited about..

If you have any interest in the mod and a general interest in the conflicts about Northern Ireland during the troubles, and you have the time to commit please get in contact.

The NIMOD is a great place to work, many new ideas and models are in the pipelines to give the player a new ofp experience from your conventional war. If you are interest and are up for the challenge for working for a mod that isn't just based on new addons,then please let us know

Many thanks, and thanks BIS for the forums

The Team

Contact Info

FORUMS

nickgregnick@yahoo.co.uk - Email/MSN